1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an assembly support for pre-fabricating building wall panels including studs, track members and door and window framing members.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Builders have long sought an apparatus or assembly support which will readily enable the complete fabrication of building walls or panels ready for erection as a part of a building. Such an assembly or support would minimize the labor involved in the assembly of pre-fabricating building wall panels and would thus tend to offset the spiralling costs of building construction. However, the prior art has generally been unsuccessful in such attempts.
Exemplary of the prior art are the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,626,643, in the name of John J. Kantzler, and in U.S. Pat. NO. 3,371,921, in the name of Frank A. Hollomon, et al. While the apparatus disclosed and taught in these patents have been successful in many respects, such devices have had major short comings. For example, the prior art devices have been unable to satisfactorily pre-fabricate building wall panels in such a way as to assure accuracy in locating the studs of the wall panel relative to the longitudinal track members and in addition to assure accuracy in locating door and window frame members within the wall panel. Such devices have also been unable to provide an apparatus which includes means for locating and subsequently clamping of all studs, track, door and window framing members for fastening or securing the wall panel parts together. Such prior art devices have also failed to include a universal adjustment for stud engaging elements so that they may be longitudinally repositioned to any desired location, thus enabling the assembly of multiple studs in the assembly of door and window framing members at any desired location within the panel. Such prior art devices have not provided a unique method of rotatably positioning the clamped wall panel frame to any desired position between the horizontal and the horizontally inverted position so as to enable the pre-fabricating of horizontal members within the mid span of the wall panel frame and to remove the completed, assembled panel, without lifting or manually handling the panel, onto a conveyor for transfer to a site for erection as part of a building complex. Finally, the prior art devices have been unsatisfactory in providing an apparatus which will include locators which may be adjusted to accept floor panel framing members, thus allowing for the most part the complete framing of a building structure.